Suvarnamukhi Hills – Home to 3 ancient temples – there is more to Bannerghatta than just the Zoo
Not very from Bangalore city center there is a place which is visited by thousands of torists every week or probably every day .. I am talking about Bannerghatta national park.
Not many know that Bannerghatta National Park is said to be part of Dandkarneya jungles where Lord Rama spent some time during the Vanvasa period.
And it is said that this is the place where pandavas also spent some time…
Let me take you to Suvarnmukhi hills which lies in the BNP area and the story behind this place
Watch the video about the 3 temples in Bannerghatta and Suvarnamukhi Hills
In a hurry watch this video:
Suvarnamukhi Hills and Suvarnamukhi Kalyani
Suvarmukhi hills is situated at the edge of Bannerghatta national park.
There is also a stream called Suvarna Mukhi which flows from this range of hills .
There is a small pond which is called as Suvarnamuki Kalyani.
Generlly people visit Champak Dham Swamy temple fist and then go to Suvarukhi Kalyani .. but the story of both are related.
Legend behind Suvarnamukhi Hills
So the story dates back to Mahabharata times.
Janmejaya , The great grandosn of Pandavas was cursed with Sarpa Dosha becuase he has killed all the snakes. You can read more about the story of why he was cursed in the link provided in the descriptin box.
So to get rid of Sarpadosha king Janmejaya did yagna here and then took bath and
prayed in this small pond here after which he was released from sarpa dosha or the curse of the snake.
He also got a golden body after he had bathed in this pod. Hence, it is called Suvarnamukhi.
He then consecrated the idol of Champakadhama Swamy.
So this whole area is related to Mahabharata time ..
Champakadhama Swamy temple
The current champak dham swamy temple dates back to 12th century. Inscriptions found here point to the fact that the structure was built in 1257 AD.
This temple is called Champakadama Swamy as it was the practice to give the deity Champaka or Sampige flowers regularly.
From there on left hand side of temple tehre is a hill which goes to hill top . The hill is called Vahnigiri, tehre is Lakshminarasimha temple which is said to be a very old one but renovated lately ..
botth these tempes close by 12.00 PM and open again at 4.00 PM
Trek to Suvarnamukhi Kalyani and temple
From behind the lakshmi narashimha temple, a road goes down the hill.. this road takes you to Suvarnamukhi Kalyani.
There is also a old Lord Hanuman temple, called as Suvarnakukhi Hanuman temple.
Another interesting fact about suvanamuhi Kalyani is that on the rock at the botton of the pond, lord Hanuman’s picture is engraved and once a year this pond is emptied and lord is worshiped and then the pond is filled back in again.
Just next to tehre is also a devi temple.
You will see people taking bath in the pond. It is said that the pond water has medicinal properties .
Also as per locals the area around has lot of medicinal plants.
One more interesting thing , just 4 to 500 meter before the Suvanamuhi kalyani you will find a dolment and a maze like structure as you can see and people say it’s prehistoric, though I did not find any documents as such about this fact.
So that was the story of ths area.
We have a place which is so popular as a weekend destinaton .. but very few of us know taht this place has 3 ancient temple and history which dates back to Mahabharata time ..
So I hope when next time you visit Bannerghata you will definitely like to visit Champackdham swamy temple. Laxmi narashimha temple and Suvanamulhi kalyani ..
Hope you liked this informaton.
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You may also like: Kolaramma Temple – Kolar – Karnatka – a beautiful 1000 year old temple
[…] has other 3 very ancient temples – you can read more on that here or click on the link at the bottom of this […]